Applications Are Open For The Second Round of USDA's Supplemental Disaster Relief Program
Brownfield
The Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation says the USDA is delivering on its promise to help farmers impacted by natural disasters.
Richard Fordyce says the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program covers commodities that were not ensured in the first application process, which now includes shallow losses, uninsured, and quality losses caused by natural disasters in 2023 and 2024.
“If the crop was impacted by the disaster, but it wasn’t quite bad enough to trigger an indemnity through your crop insurance company and trigger some of the response, what we can offer would be a refund of premiums or fees for that year’s crop insurance premium,” he says.
He tells Brownfield payments are expected to be sent quickly after approval.
“Initially, they’re only going to receive 35 percent of that payment,” he says. “The reason for that is we really don’t know how many folks are going to come in and apply and how many folks are going to get approved. We’re going to factor that payment when the program has ended, then we’ll look and see how many dollars we’ve sent out the door.”
Fordyce says up to $5 million is available through the On-Farm Stored Commodity Loss Program for commodities that were stored on-farm and impacted by a natural disaster.
“If you had a grain bin full of corn and the flood came in kind of entered that grain bin, made that grain out of condition, unsellable or certainly severely discounted, we’re able to help with that,” he says.
He says the Milk Loss Program will also provide up to $1.65 million in payments for milk that was lost due to a disaster.
Fordyce says farmers could be additionally compensated if all funds are not claimed by the enrollment deadline.